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State presents poor show at national youth fest
Barthwal pulls up state govt
Vinod Barthwal, State President of the Samajwadi Party addresses a press conference
in Dehradun on Saturday. Tribune photo: Anil Rawat |
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Swami Shivanand of Matra Sadan. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaud
Congress protests privatisation
of power
Voluntary Bureau gives up peacemaker’s role
Carrying big cash costs dear to residents
Drive Against
Power Theft
A quack dentist near Darshan Lal Chowk in Dehradun.
Tribune photo : Anil Rawat
Govt doctors call off proposed stir
Senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana, along with locals, at the DMC office in Dehradun on Saturday.
A Tribune photograph
Grade IV employees join ministerial staff protest
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State presents poor show at national youth fest
Dehradun, January 16 The state team selected by the Department of Yuva Kalyan Evam Prantiya Rakshak Dal cut a sorry figure in front of the renowned artistes revered for their knowledge, raising doubts about the manner of selection as most of the participants who took the centrestage were woefully lacking in adequate training and knowledge, a pale comparison to the artistes from other states. A first-hand witness to the image-denting performance of the state team and keen to bring accountability in the entire selection procedure, artistes from Nainital today held a novel protest at the Gandhi Park, venting out their anger in a song, questioning poor selections made by the Yuva Kalyan Vibhag. A hurt and dismayed Dr Pankaj Upreti who is Director of Himalaya Sangeet Shodh Samiti (Haldwani) and also a classical singer said, “It was quite embarrassing to sit through the tasteless performance put up by the participants from Uttarakhand. In the classical dance event, instead of performing kathak, our performer decided to dance on the tunes of a film song. No wonder then she was asked to go back. Mind you throughout the festival, renowned artistes like Pt Ravi Shankar, Dr Rekah Das, A Padamja, Alok Chatterjee and several others were judges. We surely did not have anything to show”. Similarly, in the classical instrumental music (flute) event, too a discordant note was set. Instead of getting inspiration from Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia or other classical rendition, the artiste played a film song on the flute angering the judges who were flabbergast by the selection of artistes who were representing their state. Things began to go wrong during the selections that were held in Dehradun for the state team in which artistes from 13 districts participated held under the aegis of the Yuva Kalyan Evam Prantiya Rakshak Dal. Several artistes at that time had questioned the competency of judges who were not experts in their field. Laying the blame at the door of the judges, Deepti Joshi, a kathak dancer, who too had participated in the selections in Dehradun held on January 2, 3 and 4, said, “Everything went wrong from the first day. The judges had no knowledge. They could not distinguish between a classical and semi-classical performance. No wonder all of them failed miserably in Orissa, by sending a poor team. The Yuva Kalyan Department exposed itself to ridicule and mirth,” said Deepti. In order to mollify the artistes who had protested against the selection procedure, they were allowed to participate in the non-competitive stream the youth festival in Orissa. The performance given in the non-competitive stream by them, led by Pankaj Upreti who presented a Holi dance, then was the only saving grace. In all 19 states participated in the youth festival held from January 8-12 for youth in the age group between 15-35 years. |
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Barthwal pulls up state govt
Dehradun, January 16 SP state president Vinod Barthwal gave this clear-cut message in a press conference today. He put a full stop on all anticipations, saying that soon Amar Singh would be back to the partyfold telling all that they were always
united. Bhartwal slammed the state government for failing on many fronts. He questioned the dilly-dallying tactics of the government in finalising the capital of the state. He said, “It took nine years to declare the capital issue of the state and now when the Dixit Commission report has already been tabled, the government is still hoodwinking on this subject. The other party, the Uttarakhand Kranti
Dal, is also playing dual politics by fighting for the issue of Gairsain through the podium of its office at Dehradun”. He suggested a midway by proposing to make Gairsain a summer capital and Dehradun a winter capital and as a result, decentralisation of the government machinery to percolate down the benefits of development in all strata and regions of the state. He
said it was saddening that bureaucrats, including the Chief Secretary, avoided working or visiting
hill areas. He also castigated the state government for not doing anything on the serious issue of inflation. He informed the gathering of holding a massive rally in this regard after two days in the state capital. He accused the Chief Minister of concealing real issues of public concern beneath the showy dramatics of announcing the Detailed Project Cost
(DPC) of a slew of projects after every second day. Barthwal referred to the crores of rupees changing hands by the state government manpower in the projects estimated at Rs 500 crore in the Maha Kumbh
mela, where most of the projects were crying for completion. He said it was falsely projected that a massive crowd was collecting at the
Kumbh. He also stirred a new debate saying that the Kumbh should rather be held at Dev Prayag where rivers Alaknanda and Bhagirathi merge together to give rise to the birth of the
Ganga. His next salvo was aimed at falsifying the claims of the state government to beautify Dehradun with green trees. He said, “The Nishank government is blindly felling trees in the garb of development. Around 10,000 trees were cut from one place and a total of 50,000 trees have been felled in the city so far. At many places tree felling was not even required. Due to this blatant felling of trees the green Dehradun city is emerging like any other concrete city”. The way education system is passing through a big makeover under the Central government, Barthwal demanded that the state government should also overhaul the rotting education system by constituting an Education Consultant Board comprising noted educationists, journalists and intellectuals to evolve reforms in education sector in the state at primary and medium level. He said a memorandum was submitted to the Chief Minister regarding
it. Bartwal said next month a meeting of national working committee would be He also announced the members of newly constituted media management wing of the SP under the chairmanship of prominent trade union leader RP Singh. Besides, Suresh
was made in charge for Kumaon, Kazi for Haridwar, Ramesh Gaur for Garhwal and Pardeep Chaudhary for the
Garhwal Mandal. |
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Saint threatens to go on indefinite fast
Sandeep Rawat Tribune News Service
Haridwar, January 16 The saints have been agitating for the past three months opposing the illegal quarrying carried out in the villages adjacent to the Ganga. The saints seem to be quite annoyed at the state government because nothing has been done so far. Swami Shivanand today announced that if their three-point demand was not met by January 20, he would sit on an indefinite fast. He cited his three demands of expansion of the Kumbh mela area up to Jiopata as it was in the 1998 Kumbh time, an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the cases lodged against the agitating saints by the local police and a total ban on the carriers used by quarrying owners using the Ganga to cross the river bed. Notably, the saints have been vociferously protesting against the quarrying on the Ganga ghats. Brahmachar Dayanand is still agitating in the district hospital for the 93rd consecutive day, while Brahmachar Yajyanand, who followed Dayanand after he was forcefully taken away from the protesting spot, has entered the 79th day of the protest at the Roorkee jail. With this announcement, the quarrying issue seems to be have again resurfaced on a large scale.
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Congress protests privatisation
of power
Nainital, January 16 On Friday, Rudrapur witnessed a complete bandh organised by the Congress to express its denouncement of any move to privatise the power set up in the area. The traffic, along with the markets, had been grounded to a complete halt in the first half of the day with massive slogan shouting being resorted to by the agitators. People faced a tough time on the account of the bandh. While the commuters went through an unending wait for buses and other modes of transport, others kept waiting for essential items like milk and bread to arrive. A clash between Congress and BJP supporters was averted at Galla Mandi. Meanwhile, a defensive BJP resorted to burning an effigy of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on the issues of increasing inflation and the bandh called by the local unit. In Haldwani, traders protested the on-going large scale power cuts by burning an effigy of the Power Department. They said the local economy was under tremendous strain on account of frequent power cuts. The protesters alleged that it was a sheer mismanagement on the part of the state government that people in the region were being put to extreme hardships. Over the past one month there have been numerous protests against the erratic power supply in the region. There have been occasions when agitated people have gone ahead with locking up officials in their offices to show their resentment against the power cuts. People have been complaining that it is not only traders and industrialists who are suffering on the account of the frequent power cuts, but the students also are suffering a lot as they cannot study in the absence of power supply.
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Voluntary Bureau gives up peacemaker’s role
Dehradun, January 16 Senior Superintendent of Police Abhinav Kumar said that meetings of the bureau are not regular as the special staff meant for it was lacking. He said, “The chief job of the police is to book the case and proceed. As far as the reconciliation process is concerned, it must be handled by the trained staff, not by the police which is not properly equipped for these. “These should be handled by NGOs or social groups. Nevertheless, we have the facility of a helpline which has taken over the task of solving marital disputes before registering them.” The question on the existence But in spite of that, the Voluntary Bureau went on contributing towards family wellbeing till a few months back. As the task involved solving marital disputes, the services of a senior police officer’s wife were utilised in sorting such matters out with a family feel. But as the wives of senior police officers pursue their own careers, they could not be expected to give time to the bureau’s meetings. The wife of the police official at the helm currently is an Indian Foreign Service Officer and cannot afford to give her services for this purpose. Deveshwari Rawat, Head Constable who has been part of such meetings, said, “The meetings started at the behest of then Inspector-General RS Meena, who joined here as an SSP way back in 2003 and remained here for five years. In the meanwhile, he got promoted as IG. He and his wife, a lecturer in a local college, took the initiative in holding such meetings with the help of a panel which consisted of a seasoned lawyer, noted journalist and well-known psychiatrist. “Later, Amit Singh, who came here as SSP, too showed keen interest. His wife too attended these meetings regularly. But now, the Voluntary Bureau’s meetings are not held anymore.” Rawat misses the personal “Couples too would go contented as special efforts were made SSP Abhinav Kumar expressed shortage of ample staff as the main obstruction to take the Voluntary Bureau back to its old glory. He said, “We jostle to complete the cases which come flooding to us every day. It is not viable to part with one chunk of the staff for this purpose.” The Uttarakhand police can follow the model of the Uttar Pradesh police, where family counselling sessions are held fortnightly and on a monthly basis in districts under the chairmanship of an SSP or SP-level officer.
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Carrying big cash costs dear to residents
Dehradun, January 16 Despite the suspected persons getting caught on CCTV camera footages, the police is yet to make any breakthrough in arresting any of the persons involved. Yesterday two such cases were reported in the state capital in a broad daylight. A bag containing Rs 3 lakh and other important documents of a foreigner was taken away by some unidentified persons from his seat, while he was travelling in the Shatabadi Express. He reported the matter to the GRP, Dehradun. Rupees 55,000 was snatched from an associate accountant of an NGO outside the Punjab National Bank branch on the East Canal road. He was reportedly counting the money after withdrawing it from the bank when a man pushed him down and fled with the amount on the scooter of The two miscreants were recognised by the victim on the footage of the CCTV cameras later. They were keeping an eye on the victim when he was withdrawing money from the bank. The police now claims to arrest the two soon. The January 9 incident happened in Rishikesh, in which two persons on a bike allegedly snatched Rs 2 lakh from a retired Subedar. Even though they were caught on CCTV grabs, the police failed to act contrary to what it had claimed. The major loot incident among these had occurred on January 1, in which two forest officials were beaten and robbed of Rs 4.88 lakh. They were carrying the royalty money from the Kulhal-situated forest barrier to deposit in the Timli range office at Zudali village in Vikas Nagar. Though the police had claimed that they had identified the persons and would soon arrest them, nothing has happened yet. Superintendent of Police (City) Jagatram Joshi exuded confidence to arrest the involved He also said, “Our men do go to the banks for some time and enquire about any suspected persons, but obviously they cannot stay in a bank the whole day since there are other banks too”. |
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UPCL makes up losses
Akash Ghai Tribune News Service
Roorkee, January 16 As per the official records, Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) was incurring a loss of 40.947 per cent in Roorkee circle alone till April last year. However, the effective measures initiated by the authorities here have brought down the losses to 28.394 per cent by October, 2009. “It has continuously coming down,” claimed the officials. This was a result of the drive against the offenders, said Madhu Sudan Chandola, Deputy General Manager, UPCL (Roorkee). He said the department has registered as many as 39 cases of power thefts, 24 cases from urban areas and 15 from rural, in the period from April to November last year. “But in December alone, a total of 52 cases (48 in urban and four in rural areas) were registered,” said Chandola while maintaining that as many as 157 premises were checked by the department in the last month of 2009. During the drive, the department had also raided the premises of a local packaging factory, which was being run on a kundi connection in Bhagwanpur Industrial Town. A hefty fine was imposed on the owners of the factory. SDO of the area Sunil Kumar Pokhriyal had stated that many local factories were found to be involved in power pilferage every now and then. “The regular checking drive has been bearing fruits as a further dip in circle loss is being noticed,” added Chandola. According to the officials, the UPCL has so far realised Rs 37.04 lakh against the pending arrears of Rs 83.75 lakh towards power customers in Roorkee circle last year. With the drive, not only the cases of power theft have come down, but the demand of new connections had also increased, claimed the officials. In Roorkee circle alone, the department has been catering to around 1.13 lakh consumers with the power supply of three million units per day.
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Quacks still in business
Dehradun January 16 He added, “Around five to seven persons come to my shop in search of a remedy of their ailment, every day and none of them have had any problem through my treatment. I believe in serving people and it’s not a crime if I earn out of hard work”. In spite of the constant foray and articulate movements against the “jholachhap” (fake) doctors, several self-proclaimed ENT specialists and dentists still thrive in the city. Neither are these jholachhaps degree holders nor do they have a licence for running their shops on roadsides. Mostly these doctors target poor and less educated people in the interior part of cities. In fact, a large chain of doctors and ENT specialists had mushroomed in localities of the Raipur, Rajiv Nagar, Bhauwala etc in recent times. The rates of the roadside doctors are nominal, starting from Rs 50 to Rs 3,000. When contacted, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) GC Bauntiyal, he said, “We have already begun with a movement to eradicate the existence of quacks from society who apparently risk the lives of several through their cheap and unhygienic treatments. Though practising dentists with appropriate degrees and licences are permitted to run this business, the rest are illegal”. “We are still working on this issue that has created an acute problem in the state for long time. We request our citizens not to get entrapped by these thugs,” he added. |
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Govt doctors call off proposed stir
Dehradun, January 16 The doctors decided to forgo their three-day strike call after most of their demands were met. The doctors had given a three-day (72 hours) state-wide strike call in protest against the non-fulfilment of their five-point demands. The breakthrough came in late last night when Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank held parleys with office-bearers of the Provincial Medical and Health Services Association
(PMHSA) and agreed to bring the proposal of enhancement of the Non-Practising Allowance
(NPA) from 21 per cent to 25 per cent in the next cabinet meeting. “We decided against going on a 72-hour-long stir after most of our demands were met. The government has asked the Health Department to bring the proposal of the NPA by February 15, and that then will be introduced in the next cabinet meeting. On the other major demand of implementing Tiku Committee recommendations, the government has agreed to frame a time-bound promotion,” said Dr DP Joshi, Secretary,
PMHSA. The government has also agreed to take necessary action on the remaining demands. |
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Cong lays siege to Mukhya Nagar Adhikari office
Dehradun, January 16 Led by several residents hailing from Kanwali Road, Shivaji Marg, Govindgarh, Azad Colony, Bindal Colony, Vijay Park Extension, the Congress leader reached the corporation office with a barrage of complaints regarding poor sanitary conditions prevailing in most parts of the city. Earlier, the leader had held on the spot assessment of the areas and decided to take the grievances of the people to the authorities. “We have asked the corporation authorities to take up the matter in the coming two days or face action. We are ready to launch a stir if the sanitary conditions do not improve in the coming days,” said
Dhasmana. |
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Grade IV employees join ministerial staff protest
Dehradun, January 16 The ministerial services staff are determined not to go back to their offices until they receive government orders on pay hike, regularising the promotion orders of the awaiting members to set up a structure for the ministerial workforce of all categories of every department of the ministerial services. |
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The Samajwadi Party (SP) should wriggle out of the mess generated by the Amar Singh imbroglio and concentrate on organisational development of the party.
